End of Classes and Graduation

So again we come to the time of year where the most senior students graduate and move on to university. The time couldn't have come fast enough, although as always it does seem like a long time coming when you are waiting for it! I found myself with four classes on this final day, and as I teach the entire graduating year group, it was four simple classes of saying goodbye and good luck and posing for a group photo for our memories. That was after of course demanding essays from each and every one of them, which I'm sure that they have been working very hard on. The run up to the official graduation ceremony now begins tomorrow, with a party by the swimming pool in the afternoon (the school has its own pool and seeing as we are already hitting forty degrees it feels very much like the summer I can assure you!) where the tradition of throwing all the teachers into the pool will be observed. This is followed in 2 weeks time by a ceremony to award the highest academic achievers before the graduation affair the following day, May 16th. Crammed in between now and then is a raft of grading essay papers, preparing and administering final examinations, and then tying up loose odds and ends - always busy that's for sure.......

Congratulations to all graduating students!

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Partial Exams and St. George's Day

A quick post before sleeping to update myself and the world on events. Eyed up with work at the moment as I am grading third partial exams, but the weather is getting hotter and the days of clear skies are set to be here for a while to come.

I wanted to write a small message today especially because it was St. George's Day - here we are again, England's national day, and were it not for a few newspaper articles that mention it, I think it would be hardly noticed. The articles I have read however I have found myself largely agreeing with. The shame to celebrate one's nationality because of the fear of being called a racist, or politically incorrect, whilst other member countries of the UK do so with pride, thus personifying England as the one "who asked for this," really struck me. I took these kinds of views from the newspapers as a bit "Little England" but I was further surprised to find myself agreeing slightly with them. I would be the last to call myself a Little Englander, but it has occurred to me today that this shame that we feel to celebrate being English, as we also now do British, is ridiculous.

Something does indeed have to change. This is about identity. And I have sensed for a long time the gradual loss of identity in the UK and the loss of cohesion between its peoples. What I believe is that any people should not feel ashamed to express how they identify themselves - or, should not be ridiculed for doing so, especially if it is about a national identity. After all, the nation state is the dominant form of government of the world, and England has become the land that has gone from a state of voluntary patriotism to downright loss of knowing what holds us together.

We talk about values but then we cannot express them in an environment of zealous political correctness. We are right to celebrate all of the saints days of the UK, but come on it is better to have no St. George's Day at all I think than to carry on this situation. I think that people for years haven't known what it means to be English simply because our identity became since 1707, that of Great Britain and thus British. With the Union ever increasingly under threat since the days of devolution, this is the source of the English identity problem. Let's either find a way to define Englishness and celebrate St George. Or leave the whole day altogether in history, and reassert our correct place and identity in the Union.

Either way, let's not be ashamed to express something of what we are because of political correctness. That is the greatest danger to us all. I feel that we are British and one nation, but should the future hold a separation for the Union, we must allow it, for as Scotland freely decided to join the Union it must freely be allowed to leave. Wales must also be respected should it make the same choice, and Northern Ireland should it change its mind about remaining in the Union.

This is of course the worse-case scenario, for I am today above all British and proud of the Union and the one country we have achieved together. But the English must be prepared to either commit itself to the Union without fear, or should the Union break, be ready to stand on its own two feet once more.

Partial Exams, Partial Exams

Today is that busy time of the month again where students are busy sitting their partial exams. It normally means that 1 week of each month is utterly stressful for them, and as teachers, it means that once a month we have to collate all of our work together that we have been teaching in our classes and examine the themes and topics to measure students' progress and understanding over each mini period.

I have always felt that the partial exam system is something that I hadn't got completely used to. However saying that, I feel pretty 50/50 about the whole thing. I partially agree with it, because it means that throughout a course a student is constantly reflecting on the topics presented in class, and we can track their progress and learning more closely, however the sheer frequency of the exams and the koock-on effects that it creates in terms of work (and especially grading when you have 144 students!) somewhat makes me feel that although they are useful, perhaps the frequency should be less, i.e once during the semester, with more weight on the final exam at the end.

I think the core problem behind this however is that because students don't take notes, to weigh the final exam to some extent could adversely affect the picture of progress and understanding and ability that us teachers will receive.

Moving on, I am writing this blog at 1pm as I sit in the auditorium giving an exam to my Group 3 class of Escanarios Regionales del Mundo class. There are some colourful characters in this group, and it has always been a group that has challenged me both professionally and to some personal limits too, with incessent talking and minor misbehaviour. As I write now there are whispers in the room and they have to be told constantly to stop it. I accept that I am somewhat linient on them however what I am trying to do here in prepa is shape them for what they can expect later on.

To mention some of the "chamacos" (a word they might not like to be called) first of all I have Oscar. I won't say his surname to give him some privacy. Today he is trying to be like a "Mark Renton wannabe" after seeing Trainspotting and I think he is somewhat admiring the whole culture that it depicted. He has always been a student that through his humour and distinct personality has always managed to bring a smile to my face, despite his natural aversion to authority.

Alan sits in the top left corner. He is academically gifted but doesn't always use his talents. Then the famous Bieri, the one who seems to have a fondness for touching boys as well as girls! Then I have the more polite students, always offering to bring me water, and the girls who like to laugh a lot and talk a lot but otherwise are rather shy. Amongst all of these colourful characters, whom after all I have a fondness for after teaching them for one year, are probably the two most academically-gifted students in the entire year group. Consistently high marks, politeness and a dedication to study makes them stand out and a pleasure to teach. I only feel for them that sometimes I am not able to push them as much as I would like to; as much as they deserve.

That concludes my small amount of comments about this group. I am extremely happy to finish the day of classes after this, as I find myself incredibly tired and run down with this sinusitis and cold. I look forward to sleeping early tonight!!

Thanks for reading!!

Debates, Debates!

Today was an interesting day. Students are in the middle of conducting mini-debates on the topic of "International Institutions are both necessary and effective in promoting dialogue and cooperation between nations." Although we started last week this is the first time I am including something about my classes in my blog. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some really important things - those being: (a) The formality of students' clothing is wonderful - these guys and girls know when it is time to be formal and they have the whole outfit to go with it! (Even if Narciso didn't wear socks and must have suffered with the leather rubbing against his feet) (b) They find it hard to give their arguments and express themselves because they are still by and large relying on the expression of facts instead of what those facts try to communicate, which can only be understood or inferred through an analysis. (c) The final part of the debates which we have been conducting in Spanish have generally worked very well and tells me that (b) is not as big a problem as I thought, I love this part even if I don't understand it all! Some really good points have been coming across and they are much more articulate that one could think......I see real progress this semester in all of my students :)
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The Beginning of Something New - Opening Message

May I begin by saying hello and a warm welcome to all of my readers. I have never written a blog before, nor have I been very interested to do so, but it has become apparent to me rather suddenly that it might serve a useful purpose and that is to have a kind-of miniature log of the things I am doing and how life is progressing little by little. A blog can be the place where I can record rather random thoughts, but also those of contemporary issues. A place where I can access my opinions at any time and chart any changes. A place where I can reach out to the wider world. Underlying all of this and what I mean by "things I am doing" is just to record the small things I do on a regular basis. Seeing as I am currently living abroad my main idea is to log my experiences here, whether they be large or just a small nuance - something amazingly shocking, wonderfully amazing, or just something that highlights to me the culture difference between where I am and in the United Kingdom. Finally, this blog serves as a personal reflection of how I see the UK and Europe in general - they say that you see many things about your own culture, lifestyle and interpret events differently when you are "outside the box." I will put that idea to the test.

Thanks for reading my opening message.